New kitchen and 125 cars

hey fools,
whats up? this week was better. we actually had people at church. we only had two but thats better than 0. they are a coupple that we have to marry before they can get baptized. they are cool and have a crazy kid named logan. he likes us allot. so this week our numbers were really low. but i put my comp to work on sat and we got lessons set up for all day tuesday and wednesday. it was hard this week because we were at the temple 2 days of the week. but this week should be a little more relaxed and we can have allot of success if we work hard.

so wed we whent to the temple again. it was really good. i actually got to follow 3 groups as they did the tour. i felt the spirit really strong there in the temple. i got a surprize when i showed up to the temple. my comp from the MTC Elder Glenn was there. he is way chill and we decided to go on divisions with each other. and guess what we did? we whent to the same stop light that i was at on monday to invite people to come to the temple when they stopped. we contacted 125 cars each. it was really fun. we were running to try to get more cars than the other. it was really cool. i jumped on some more busses. it was a really cool day at the temple.

so today we went to play futbol rapido again. it was fun. i totally juked this mexi. my DL. it was way funny. then we came home and changed houses. the member that we live with, her daughter is coming home from the mission soon so they want to do construction on the room so we had to move. our new house is pretty chill. we have a citchen. so thats cool.

not much else to report. love you guys and keep up the good work.
amor y dedos,
elder skaggs

Temple Open House and combies

October 21, 2008

well this week was pretty average as far as it has been going here. we once again had allot of people set up to come to chuch and none of hem came. so that is a bummer. well i really tried to prevent that this week but i guess im not good enough. hhahaha. so i tought the sabboth day to this family of 6 that we commited to come. the guy works on sundays and i told him that he should test God to see if He would bless him for not going to work and going to chuch. he was really excited after my lesson and said that he was going to do it. well we passed by their house on sunday morning and they had left to go to work, all of them. so that was lame. now for the good news. yesterday (monday) we got the opportunity to help with the open house of the mexico city temple. it was the first day of the open house so there wasnt an amazing amount of people there. but it was a great experiance. we helped the people get from the exit of the temple to the place where theey can write comments and say if they want to learn more. so, we had allot of missionaries there helping so i had some time to go invite people to come. there is a stopligt in front of the temple and i stood out in front with another gringo that dosnt know spanish. when the light tuned red and the cars stopped i would go and talk to the people in there cars and invite them to come to see the temple. it was really cool. i also jumped on two combies (busses) and told all of the people on the buss that they should come to visit the temple. it was really good i gained allot of confidence in talking to stangers so hopefully i can keep it up. today i also talked to all of the people on the combie. its fun i feel like one of the gus that sells chicle o algo asi. hahha well this week was ok for the work. we need to work harder if we want to seee the results. im going to really focuss on contacting and the open house this week. i hopee we can get some people to come to church this week. weel see what happens. its all up to the Lord this is His work. all we have to do is find the people that He has prepared to recive His gospel. well thats about all folks, thanks for the emails and keep in touch
elder skaggs

Two gems!

que onda?

this week we had transfers. on tuesday i recived elder solis. he is pretty cool. he doesnt talk much but he isnt likie a mute person. he ways like 100 pounds more than me and we both eat allot. he is from ciudad juarez, chihuhua. which is pretty close to the boarder of texas. he is really nice. ive had to really step up this week in the lessons. i do most of the talking now which is really good and should help me to pregress really fast at spanish and gain more confidence.

this week was a little hard as far as the work goes. we had alot of lessons set up. but almost all of them fell through. the people that were supposed to come to church all couldnt. we were supposed to marry this coupple this friday so that se could get baptized on sunday but they had problems with their papers so we coudnt go. this week will be better for sure. but the good thing is that my comp is cool and he is not dead. we are working hard and it will pay off soon.

but we did have some success this week. we had a baptism. a gut names jose luis. he was a refrence from a member lady in our ward. a member baptized him. they have been good friends since he started coming to church. he is really cool. he is alot like armando who just got baptized. he is the only convert of his family. but he really wants his family to be able to join the church too. that is a good sighn that the people are really converted when they love and know that the gosple is true they will want for the people that they love to know that too.

yesterday when we walked through the tiangie (street market) i found two gems. i found a sweet rudolph tie that will be absolutly perfect fro christmas time. and i also found a retro angels jersy that a guy was selling for 80 pesos or 8 dollers. i didnt have that much cash at the time so im going to but it next sat. ill send some pics and hopefully i can find it again.

today we realaxed all day. it was really nice to sleep in and recharge my batreries. this week we need to work really hard and get allot of people to come to church and find allot of new investigators. i know that if we keep working hard and dont give up the Lord will bless us with the success that we deserve. thanks for the emails and keep in touch. les amo muchisimo.

elder skaggs

Armando and bike pegs

so this week was kind of diffrent. so on tuesday one of the assistants to the president of the mission came to our district meating. and gave us a big pep talk on how we can have allot of success if we are willing to pay the price. he is a really good example. so he made us make goals for how many baptisms we want to have on the 12th of october(in 3 weeks) we put our goal at 12. pretty high. so we needed to bring allot of people to church to be able to make our goal. but the work was extra hard this week. allot of rejection and allot of lessons fell through. we only had 1 new person at church but she is cool. and we have 3 other people set up for the 12th. well se how it goes.

on a liughter note. armando got baptized on saturday. he was sooooo excited and he will be an awesome member and leader in the church. he got confirmed on sunday and is really excited to keep progressing in the church. on sunday night we had a sweet family home evening at his house with some members. it was really fun and he was so excited to have the members come over. he showed all of the kids his "zoo" that he has in his backyard. he has a bunch of chickens and 2 dogs and 2 bunnys and a iguana. he is an awesome convert and person.

another random note from mexico city. bike pegs. evryone has them. it doesnt matter what kind of bike it is mountian, cruiser, or little pink girly bike with streeemers and a horn. evryone has them. not to grind a reail or anything but for transportation. people dont really have cars here so is you can fit another 2 or 4 people on your bike thats really helpfull. so all the time is see people riding their bikes down the streeet with their friend(s) on the back.

thanks for your love and support

elder skaggs

Mexicans vs. gringos

hey,
this week was good. we are still working really hard but not seeeing the results. 2 of our three baptismal dates fell to october so we will only finish this month with two which is absolutly nothing here in iztapalapa. our zone leader said that it is one of the most escojido (chosen) places in the world for missionary work. i dont know what we are doing wrong but we are just not seeing the success we would like to.

so the noche mexicana was sweet. there was alot of food but the member ladys were kind of shisty (?) we kind of had to beg for the food to be free (which was expected). so that kind of sucked. so the kids brought out the foam cans and elder loser sprayed it right in my ear. i tried to catch him but i was too full to run so i gave up. so we ate tacos durados (rolled tacos), tomales, gelitina (jello) and tacos. it was good overall.

so the temple is going to get rededicated on the 16th of november. we are going to help out with the open house the 20th and 22nd of oct but we have no clue what we are going to do yet. but it should be cool.

today we plaed futbol at the church. it was way fun we played for 4 hours. it was crazy tireing. we played the mexicans vs. the gringos. we played for tacos. and gess what we won. we played two out of three and we one the first two games. and the tacos were even more delicious because they were free.

thanks for your support and the sports updates keep it up. love ya

amor y dedos
elder skaggs

September 15, 2008

what up
this week was way chill. so all of mexico has been gearing up for their independance day(today). it has been a little crazy lately. A drunk guy (borracho) tried to steal my gaffet (plaque) and told me that i didnt belive in God because i wouldnt give it to him. he also said that all americans think that they are better that evryone else. that one really pissed me off. but it was alright. so there has been an extreamly large amount of borrachos lately and ive seen 3 people peeing in the street in the last 2 days. i guess thats how mexicans do when they have a holiday.

so this area is pretty diffrent than contreras. it is way hotter here. this week has been sooooo hot. i got burnt on my nose on friday. it sucks cuz we have been workiung reallly hard and are in the street all day. so ive been sweating like no other. but even with all the sweating im still starting to gain weight again. i think its because im not climbing 1000 stairs a day anymore. but at least im getting a nice farmers tan!

so this week we knocked the door of this viajita (old lady). she was absolutly crazy. she was talking to us and saying puros chismes (nothing but rumors and talikng bad a bout people). she had no teeth and a lazy blue eye o and a mustash. it was quite the conversation with this lady. we wasted like half an hour for nothing. triste viajita

so the end of the week was much better. on wed we had a weading. we married a member guy to our investigator. they are so cool. then sat the investigator (Yuri) got baptized. it was a really cool baptismal service. then on sunday i got the opportunity to confirm her a member of the church. it was way cool. also we had another investigfator at church. his name is Armando. he is like 45 years old and is way excited and ready for baptism. he is so escogido (chosen). he reads evry tarea (homework) that we give him. and he started to read the Book of Mormon all on his own. he has a really strong desire to help his family accept the gospel too. he says that he needs to be a really good example so that they can join the church too. he is awesome.

so tonight we are going to go to the noche mexicana at the church. the whole steak will be there. it is supposed to be way cool. there is going to be soo much good food there. im so excited. also ill get to chill with elder loser. he was in my district in the MTC and is in our zone so he will be there.

thats about it for this week ill make sure to take lots of pics at the party and send them home next week. love ya lots

amor y dedos
elder skaggs

Tiangies

September 8, 2008

hey,

things are good here in Mirasoles. We are working really hard but its not really paying off now. we had like 15 people committed to come to church this week and none came. satanas is working really hard against our investigators. but we have found a lot of new people the last two weeks, and we will keep working. things will work out and we will start to se the results of our labors this next week. this week we found a family of 10 or more. its actually two sisters who live in the same house. they are all really cool and want to progress. it is way cool to teach allot of people.

so it still rains almost evry day here. i dont know when its going to stop. they say in about october but who knows its crazy here. today we went to carls jr for lunch with our district. it was fun and really tasty. after that some elders wanted to go to zocalo and me and the District Leader, elder ewell, didnt so we whent on splits. We just hung out at their house. it was cool to just chill with an american for once.

Every sat and sun in the street in front of our house there are "tiangies". its kind of like the swap mart. but way longer and allot more people. they shut down the street for the whole two days. the street is way long its like doubble Lake Murry blvd. and really straight. they have these little tent things for the sun and they shut down the whole street. it is way cool lots of tacos and cheap clothes. lots of temptations. hahaha.

i dont know about you guys but these last few weeks have gone by so fast. it is crazy. the weeks just keep getting faster and faster. i feel like i just left the mtc and soon it will be christmas. next week is the independance day for mexico. and our steak is having a noche mexicana in the capilla. it will be crazy. there is going to be so much good food and allot of people there. That should be really fun. i will make sure to take lots of pictures and send them in two weeks.

We have two weaddings set up for this wed. it should be really cool. then they can get baptized aftrer. we havve one lady for sat. 13th and the other coupple for 28th it should be really cool the see. not much ese to write about. things are going well and im having lots of fun and working hard. love ya lots and thanks for the support.

amor y dedos

elder skaggs